China Railway and China Communications Construction, two state-owned enterprises of the Chinese Communist Party, were involved in the construction of the Novi Sad railway station project in Serbia. Last year, the station collapsed just three years after a renovation project, resulting in the death of 16 people. Recently, Serbia arrested multiple individuals, including former Minister of Infrastructure, on suspicion of tax evasion causing a loss to the country and allowing Chinese companies to gain “illegal profits”.
On August 1st, Serbia arrested former Minister of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure, Tomislav Momirovic, and former CEO of the state-owned railway infrastructure company, Nebojsa Surlan, along with 11 others. They are suspected to be involved in the collapse of the station roof incident that occurred last November.
According to Reuters, the office of the prosecutor responsible for organized crime in Serbia stated that six suspects were involved in issuing fake invoices with the two Chinese companies responsible for rebuilding the Novi Sad station and railway tracks – China Railway International (CRCC) and China Communications Construction Company (CCCC). The suspects are accused of causing a loss of $115.6 million to the Serbian national budget through the issuance of fake invoices, while the Chinese companies made “illegal profits” of $18.8 million.
In November last year, following the collapse of the Novi Sad station roof, multiple individuals, including Momirovic’s successor Goran Vesic, were detained on suspicion of committing criminal offenses endangering public safety.
On November 1st, 2024, the roof of the Novi Sad railway station in northern Serbia collapsed, resulting in at least 16 fatalities. The station, which had just completed a three-year reconstruction project in July 2024, was constructed by Chinese companies CRCC and CCCC, subsidiaries of China Railway.
The collapse of the Novi Sad station roof triggered the largest anti-government protests in Serbia in decades, with protests lasting for months, including university closures. President Vucic’s administration was shaken by the events.
Chinese state-owned enterprises have been involved in numerous substandard construction projects domestically and internationally in recent years as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
In March this year, an earthquake in Myanmar resulted in the instantaneous collapse of a 30-story Thai Office of the Auditor General building under construction, located 800 to 1,000 kilometers away from the epicenter in Bangkok. The construction was undertaken by Chinese state-owned enterprise China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group. This project was also a significant symbol of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Thailand.
On December 18, 2022, during the trial operation of the Indonesia Yawan high-speed railway, a derailment accident occurred, resulting in 2 deaths and 4 injuries. The victims were Chinese workers. The construction of the Yawan high-speed railway was carried out by the Indonesian Chinese High Speed Rail Corporation. A member of the Indonesian Parliament’s Fifth Committee responsible for transportation and infrastructure affairs stated that the train accident proved the substandard safety quality of the Chinese high-speed rail project.
The construction of the Karuma hydroelectric power station in Uganda by China International Water and Electric Corporation started in 2012, but during the construction process, flaws such as wall cracks occurred, leading to project delays until it was finally commissioned in September 2024.
The Naulum-Jehlum hydroelectric power station in Pakistan, built by the Gezhouba Group of China, began operation in 2018 but was forced to shut down in April 2022 due to leakage in the pressure tunnel.